The Indonesian authorities indicated this Friday, November 29, that Paris requested the repatriation of Serge Atlaoui. This Frenchman, accused of drug trafficking, has been in prison in Indonesia for 19 years.
Sentenced to death in 2007 for drug trafficking which he always contested, Frenchman Serge Atlaoui, 60, has been imprisoned for 19 years in Indonesia. This Friday, November 29, Jakarta indicated that it had received an official repatriation request from Paris.
According to Yusril Ihza Mahendra, Indonesian Minister in charge of Legal Affairs and Human Rights, “the French Embassy delivered a letter from the French Minister of Justice to the Indonesian Minister of Justice, dated November 4, containing a request for transfer of the French prisoner named Serge Atlaoui.
The French embassy in Indonesia has not yet reacted, but this request comes after, on Thursday, Yusril Ihza Mahendra indicated that his country was in discussions with the Philippines, Australia and France with a view to repatriation of several prisoners. He then said he hoped that these transfers could be carried out by “the end of December”.
Accused of being a “chemist”
Serge Atlaoui was arrested in 2005 at a factory outside Jakarta, where drugs were discovered. The authorities accused him of being a “chemist”, but always claimed that he had only installed industrial machinery in what he believed to be an acrylic factory.
This artisan welder from Metz and father of four children was initially sentenced to life in prison, before seeing the Supreme Court increase the sentence, condemning him to the death penalty on appeal. The case caused a stir in Indonesia where anti-drug legislation is one of the strictest in the world.
The execution of Serge Atlaoui was to take place in 2015, at the same time as that of eight other convicts. However, he obtained a temporary reprieve thanks to pressure from Paris: the Indonesian authorities had agreed to let a pending appeal take its course.
The Frenchman was detained for a long time in the Indonesian “Alcatraz”, located on the island of Nusakambangan, in the center of the island of Java. In 2015, he was transferred to Tangerang, a city west of Jakarta.
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